Czech news in brief for July 21: Tuesday's top afternoon headlines

Good afternoon, far from backing down after trade unions issued a strike alert, the government accelerated the nomination of the new head of Prague Airport, which will be effective on August 1. In other news, a collapsed public artwork sparks a debate on cultural preservation and legacy in Prague, and a decidedly unlucky Czech woman gets struck by lightning in Croatia. Here's what happened today.

Radomír Lašák will become the new chairman of the board of directors of Prague Airport starting in August, the Ministry of Finance confirmed today, one month earlier than initially announced. "We are convinced that this will help to calm the situation at the airport, which needs clear and motivated leadership," the ministry said in a statement, also assuring that a feared privatization of the airport was not on the agenda.

Strike alert. Prague Airport trade unions have already threatened to go on strike if Lašák - whom they consider responsible for Czech Airlines' bankruptcy when he was head of ČSA - is indeed appointed as the new director of the airport. They now said they'll wait to see the first measures taken by Lašák at the beginning of August.

The Czech population is ageing fast, and healthcare is only slowly adapting to the new demographic reality. According to a report presented today at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, the Czech Republic will need to invest CZK 70 billion to create 35,000 new beds for the elderly in nursing homes during the next ten years.

In related news, the Health Ministry announced today its plans to expand the network of hospital palliative care teams across the country. Roughly 60 percent of the approximately 110,000 people who die in Czechia every year require palliative care at the end of their lives.

Two-fifths of Czechs are worried they might lose their job, according to a new survey by the STEM agency, with the vast majority (90 percent) also open to radically change their professional field and career to avoid being unemployed. More than half of them would accept a lower salary to remain employed, but just a third would consider moving to another region.

Up and downs. STEM conducts similar surveys every year. The record share of people (66 percent) fearing unemployment was reached in 2013 at the height of a global economic crisis. On the contrary, worries about losing one's job were at their lowest (33 percent) during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Prague Council today approved the replacement of the well-known, six-meter-high, 15-meter-wide sculpture Rovnovaha (Balance) that collapsed late last week on the Barrandov bridge. Created by sculptor Josef Klimeš and installed in 1990, the work will be replaced by a replica created thanks to a detailed 3D scan of the original.

Public artwork in Prague. The collapse sparked a wider debate about the desolate and neglected state of many public artworks in Prague and across the country. Prague itself has lost close to 500 works of art in public spaces since the early 1990s, according to public art expert Pavel Karous.

A Czech woman has suffered serious injuries after being struck by lightning while holidaying on a beach on the Croatian island of Krk. She's been taken to a hospital in Rijeka. "We wish our citizen a lot of strength and a speedy recovery," the Czech Foreign Ministry said, also thanking the quick response of the Croatian emergency services.

Past precedent. Such cases are very rare, but do happen on occasions. A young Czech tourist died in the summer of 2005 after being struck by lightning while at sea in Croatia during a storm.